Monday, October 20, 2008

Phil's Jesus Challenge (sort of)

Posted February 27th, 2008 by phillau

I decided to try out the Jesus Challenge, except instead of a bankroll of $0, I’m starting with $5. I know, I’m skipping the hardest part of the challenge. But hey, I’m not exactly Chris Ferguson. My goal, however, is the similar. It’s to turn $5 into $20,000. Here’s what happened in Day 1.

The game of choice was $0.25/$0.50 + ante $0.05 Limit HORSE. I chose this because I like the brain massage the HORSE game gives, and the limit version can reduce the disadvantage I’m taking for having a small bankroll. The games included were (1) Limit Hold’em; (2) Limit Omaha Hi/Lo; (3) Limit Razz; (4) Limit Stud Hi; and (5) Limit Stud Hi/Lo. I bought in with every cent of my $5. Hey, that’s 10 big blinds everybody. It’s absurd. I sat down to fill up the table to 8-handed and started working. Of the games in play, I’m most comfortable with Hold’em, but I also like Stud and Razz. Omaha’s definitely my weakest link, so I figured I would need to play a little tighter and reduce my exposure every time we went around to Omaha. After two and a half hours of grinding, I built my $5 into $30.05. However, I started running bad, and within 30 minutes, I was down to $19.85. At that point, I decided that as soon as I get back up to $22, I’ll leave the table. After another 30 minutes, my chip-count is exactly $22.00, so I left.

After almost 4 hours of limit cash game, my head’s pretty bloated. I took a break and then registered myself in a $20+2 NL Hold’em Sit’n Go. It’s business as usual, and I was lucky enough to land myself two pocket rockets during crunch time. Those two hands took out the 4th and 5th place to get me into the money. I ended up getting 2nd place with a payout of $54. Bankroll: $54.00.

So now that I’ve played a cash game and a Sit’n Go, I didn’t feel like grinding my way into money anymore. I registered myself in a $50 + $2.50 NL Hold’em Heads-Up Match, and immediately I got a game going. The guy I was playing against was very tight, tight enough that I could comfortably fold every time he bets. This type of player is very easy to play against in a heads-up game, as it’s almost certain that you can get an early chip lead. After that, all you have to do is lean on him until he finally makes the inevitable showdown. The key hand I played was a TQo, which I limped in. The flop showed 9J2, and we both checked. The turn showed an 8 and he betted out. I smooth-called as I held the nuts and there wasn’t much threat on the board. The river was a 7 and I betted half his stack. He insta-called showing T6 for the lower straight. I took down the pot and improved my stack to about four times his. Hereafter the game’s pretty standard and I forced the guy to go all in on QT and I took the game down. Bankroll: $101.50.

That’s it for today, I’ll keep grinding it out tomorrow and hopefully can hit my first target of $500 soon.